"I remember walking in and seeing this group of girls looking me up and down and giggling. It seemed like the whole dance stopped and I realized how mismatched I was. I thought, I am really out of touch; I am really uncool. I went to the bathroom and cried. Then I called my mother and she came and picked me up. To this day, I still feel like I can't put clothes together."
"One day, I don't know why - I decided to pick [that girl] first. When I look back I can still see the smile on her face. It changed me that day. It made me realize that winning wasn't the most important."
"I think because I was a swimmer, I had a certain amount of confidence. I had a recognition of my abilities and it gave me credibility and people didn't pick on me."
Athletic participation provided some girls with confidence, recognition of abilities, and social credibility that reduced peer targeting. Small acts of inclusion, such as choosing an excluded classmate first, produced lasting emotional impact and reframed priorities away from winning. Many girls who appeared popular or successful secretly experienced feelings of being outcast, humiliation, and lasting insecurity tied to specific adolescence events. Some victims of intense bullying became difficult to trace as adults, having left those years behind. A number of survivors later found high-school communities that lessened stigma, though those groups often carried their own labels and stereotypes.
Read at BuzzFeed
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